My sister and I are renovating a 1924 home in Portland, OR and part of that process was to make livable space in the basement. We installed an egress window on the north side of the house to create a legal bedroom. After installing the window we made a concrete window well wall. The foundation appears that it was not formed, due to all of the over-pour and lack of a footer. In order to install the window well we had to clear up some vertical space on the wall to smooth it out for the transition.

Two weeks ago we had a very large storm that brought a lot of rain. After the rain we found a 4' section of the wall on the inside of the house to the left of the window that had about half a dozen little spots where water was seeping through. Luckily we found this the day before drywall was to be installed. So obviously we wanted to water proof the wall to prevent more leaks. Fixing gutters and grading of the ground away from the foundation are the obvious first fixes but we wanted to try to seal the foundation as well. To seal the section I did the following:

I dug down to below the window well. I troweled on Rapid Set Mortar while pushing into any ridge or uneven spot on the exterior foundation. Then I painted on 3 coats of DryLok Extreme. This is where I am at currently. I was wondering if anybody has any additional suggestions before I back fill? I thought about taking some adhesive and glueing some this plastic sheeting. Also thought about painting on another layer of some sort of asphalt based foundation coat like this Henrys product.

Any advice is welcomed and appreciated!! Thanks!

 

Welcome to the forums! Where does your water go once it is in the window well? Do you have a drainage system, or a way for it to exit to the atmosphere away from the foundation?

 

Inside the well I have dug down an additional couple feet and filled that with gravel then filled the entire bottom of the well with smaller gravel with larger on top of it. So the entire bottom is covered in some form of rock about 10 inches deep. The leak in the foundation is coming from outside the well however. That is where we concentrated our waterproofing of the foundation.

 

The water was pooling at the spot that is circled. It would then come through at that point on the inside and travel to the right of this circle within the wall as well. The spot circled is where we had to rotohammer to smooth out for the wall to meet the foundation.

I dug out about a foot wider than this and water proofed with the mortar and drylok on the foundation where I dug out.

 

When I got this sort of work estimated they said they'd go over the damaged areas with either mortar or hydraulic cement. Then they'd go over that with an asphalt-type substance, then go over that with a plastic water proof membrane. I was told almost exactly the same thing by 3 different contractors. They said in my situation with the leaking section of wall in a crawl space under an enclosed porch, they'd have to crouch down under there and excavate completely by hand. It was grueling grunt work that they all hated having to come back and do a second time. So they all followed pretty much those same steps because it always fixed the problem permanently on the first attempt.

In my opinion the drylock was a waste of time. Won't hold up under serious hydrostatic pressure. But you are definitely on th right track by excavating and fixing from the outside.

 

Are you flipping the house or living in it? Waterproofing or damp-proofing; Waterproofing: Moisture-Proofing New Basements

Wall should have been treated before the added concrete walls, at least some sticky window membrane to stop the new concrete from wicking to the basement wall once saturated at the joint. Use pt wood at window jambs with sticky wrap for drainage, add exterior trim to cover window flanges. 36" min. required from window to new wall; https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...33otStRi7Aff7g

Gary